A year in France

Beautiful, Beautiful, Copenhagen…

Those are the lyrics to some song I remember being sung at a meeting of the Danish Brotherhood in Milwaukee about, oh, 20 years ago? For some reason, the song has stuck in my family’s collective memory and anytime someone mentions the city, one of us will bust out that line.

My maternal grandfather was 100 percent Danish, even though he — and his parents — were all born and raised in the United States. So he went to these meetings, and we went along one time. I remember only the song, and the fact that my cousin, who was also a child, won a raffle and got some free beer. No joke.

Anyhow… I’ve always wanted to see Denmark, land of Hans Christian Andersen, the Little Mermaid Statue, the world’s “happiest people,” and my ancestors. So D. and I embarked on a road trip that took us through Germany, to Copenhagen and then to the southwest portion of Sweden.

I’ll admit, my first view of Copenhagen was less than inspiring. We had to drive through a ring of shabby housing (nothing as bad as the French suburbs, just rundown) and we started to worry.

I’m not sure what that was all about, but we got to our hotel, the Copenhagen Island (which I would recommend) things were improving. The place was on a huge canal, surrounded by that modern, Scandinavian architecture every American thinks of as “IKEA-esque.”

View from our hotel room, at night

I would say that Copenhagen isn’t a “touristy” town in the same way that, say, Paris or Brugges or Amsterdam is. There are tons of things to see and do, but only a few are really “famous.” The rest of the town is best enjoyed on foot, or, on bike, just seeing how beautiful it is, and how Danes really live.

The back of the National Library, on a canal

It reminds me of a European Portland. Everyone is outdoors (this being summer) biking, running, sailing, even kayaking on the canals! It’s very earth-friendly, people are nice… really, it was like Portland.

Old stock exchange... people kayaking in front of it.

There are mutliple places for public swimming in the city, too – including the one pictured below that appeared to have been made in a floating, movable pool. It was in the canal behind a shopping center, next to our hotel. There are also swimming beaches in the actual harbor — we were told Copenhagen is the only city in Europe with ports clean enough for people to swim in. How great is that?

People swimming... in a canal!

We took a bike tour around the city the first full day we were there. We used Mike’s Bike Tours, which, though it wasn’t cheap, was pretty cool. We biked around to famous monuments like the Little Mermaid Statue, Hans C. Andersen’s grave, as well as in residential areas.

Copenhagen is a huge bike city – there are more bikes than people there!. Everyone bikes everywhere and their bike lanes are amazing. In one part of our tour, we got to ride through a “green belt” that was like a huge park going behind people’s houses, schools, etc. It was lovely.

A stop on the bike tour - the Little Mermaid Statue!

There are lots of museums to see, but, unfortunately, we didn’t get to all of them. I really wanted to go to the Museum of Danish Resistance, which chronicles how Danes fought the Nazis during the German occupation of Denmark, as well as how they helped save the Danish Jews (95 percent of Danish Jews survived the war, most of whom were evacuated across the sea to Sweden. A German ambassador to Denmark leaked the info about when they were going to be rounded up, and Danish pastors and other community leaders helped get out the word. Some people even just looked in the phone book for Jewish-sounding names, called up the strangers, and warned them to get out before the date. Some even maintained their homes and gardens for their Jewish neighbors until they could return at the end of the war).

It’s huge, and asks the question “Who are the Danes?” So you find out, starting with exhibits of prehistoric artifacts, then to ancient Viking ships and gravestones, all the way to the 1700 and 1800s and today, finding out how Denmark developed its welfare system. It’s a very neat museum – the only downside is that they don’t appear to have any AC so it was HOT.

My favorite thing, in general, about Copenhagen is the architecture..

New blending with old...

Old behind new...

The downside? The price. It’s one pricey city. Food is the worst. So, if you go to Copenhagen, here are my tips to keep food prices down (unless you’re on some sort of gastronomic tour, but honestly, if you are, you should probably head to Paris or Spain, instead).

1. The kebab places in the pedestrian drag are your friends. Kebab sandwiches and falafel can be had for about 33 Danish Kroner, which is about 5 euros. They’re not bad, either, especially Shawarma Grill House, Frederiksberggade 36 (strøget).

2. If you go to the shopping mall, you can hit up the food court – including a Danish version of Subway, for about 5 euros a meal.

3. The prices of alcohol are crazy. If you are roadtripping, do what we did – bring some wine bottles with you, eat, and then have a nice drink in your hotel room. Or take a glass down to a park – there don’t seem to be any rules about drinking in public in Denmark.

4. If you need coffee or beer, head to 7-11. They’re all over the place. And they’re cheap. An example? D. spend about 8 euros on a Carlsberg beer at a bar. He went to 7-11 and got roughly the same size, in a large can, for 2 euros. Same thing with coffee.

5. The cafe inside the National Library is also cheap, for coffee or sandwiches. Even better, it has Wi-Fi and a lovely outside terrace where you can sit and watch the canal.